Saturday July 17th Hilary Norcliffe During “TropicFest” in the Santiago Art District

This work explores the relationship between House and Home.  A house is a shelter that we crave first for protection, and then for status.  Notions of home may overlap with our mental image of a house, however our life’s path, circumstantial or chosen, will challenge us to redefine our home.  Do we reach this sense of belonging through architecture, community, family, life-style, or personal meditation?  Do we live in a home, or does home live in us.

I present two bodies of work in this exhibition.  For nearly a year I have been getting to know the homeless community in Long Beach by doing quick charcoal sketches of them while they wait for their turn to take shower at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.  These urban cowboys describe their challenge as the “Survival of the Fittest,” and have described home as “an emotional state,” their “soul,” or “the whole earth.” (Lonnie, Curtis and friend – Spring 2010).

Simultaneously, I have been creating small assemblages using a wide variety of reclaimed wood (relating to the architecture of “house”) and small objects/materials that filter daily through our houses, slowly imbuing them with a sense of home.   Some of these are made in response to my own thoughts on house and home, while others are made in response to the stories I hear from the homeless community.